[I was curious to see how the last of the 35 district conventions was going, so I went to the CID website and noticed this news, dated today. Besides the election news, you can find resolutions that have been passed as well. CH]

Election of CID President

The first election of the convention was for District President. The four nominees were Rev. David Bueltmann (incumbent), Rev. Mark Miller, Rev. Dr. Daniel Olson, and Rev. Donald Pritchard. After a third ballot, a majority was attained. The Rev. Mark A. Miller (pictured right) was elected as the 16th President of the Central Illinois District.

A standing ovation was given in thanks for Rev. Bueltmann’s many years of service. To God be the Glory.

About Pastor Charles Henrickson

Rev. Charles Henrickson currently serves at St Matthew Lutheran Church in Bonne Terre, Missouri. He is a 1990 graduate (M.Div.) of Concordia Seminary-St. Louis, where he also received an S.T.M. in Exegetical Theology (Old Testament concentration) and is “All But Dissertation” on a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies (New Testament concentration).

I remember Kent from my days at Sem. He was the Sacristan for the chapel at FW. Had as angelic of a voice as I ever heard in my life. Good man. Confessional, too (unless he’s changed over the years – I doubt that).

Congratulations to Mark. Mark Miller, Tim Scharr (Southern Illinois) and Scott Murray were good buddies at Concordia Ann Arbor. I am proud to say I graduated with them. We all attended Good Shepherd Lutheran Church. Klemet Preus was our pastor. Klemet should be very proud about now.

Kantor Dennis Boettcher :
I remember Kent from my days at Sem. He was the Sacristan for the chapel at FW. Had as angelic of a voice as I ever heard in my life. Good man. Confessional, too (unless he’s changed over the years – I doubt that).

I remember him singing at church when I was growing up, he was a great vocalist!

Both President Mark Miller and 2nd VP Daniel Bishop vicared here at Our Savior’s, Crookston MN under Rev. David Anderson (as did I) — Miller in ’81/’82; Bishop in ’90/’91; and Bohler in ’91/’92 . They had BETTER be confessional, or Rev. Anderson will come and get ’em and make them redo vicarage!

Pastor Tibben is my parents’ pastor (my father accompanied him as the church’s lay delegate), and though we were members of the other LCMS church in town at the time, I believe he taught several of my confirmation classes. He’s a top-notch pastor and theologian. Pastor Bishop’s election is also fantastic news; his father and I are friends from when I lived in Bloomington, IL. The CID has two great confessional leaders as VPs.

I was an observer at the convention (I was the tech guy in the back running the video and sound), and as a layman I was pretty pleased with the direction of the decisions made by the CID here. When Rev. Miller was elected president – and apparently a surprise to many, given the reaction by the crowd – my first thoughts were “what does this mean politically for Synod?”, but from what I can glean from my read of folks there and what few comments there are, this was a good choice by the district.

This being the first district convention that I’ve been to, I do have one nagging question: who on earth are the 7-15 people (out of 220-ish) who voted “No”… on everything?

It seemed like every single vote, no matter how trivial the topic, there were always a handful of folks who would vote in the negative. In fact, there were less “no” votes on the big “controversial” topics like reaffirming marriage as between a man and a woman, or to commend the RCC for leading the fight against the HHC abortion mandate than there were for ordinary (and to my mind, no-brainer) “attaboy” motions to commend this committee or thank God for that ministry, and so on and so forth.

Is this common in district conventions? Are there always a few contrarians who just have their fingers on the “no” button on general principal? Or is this just a matter of perception by an out-of-the-loop layman who doesn’t see the back office politics involved? After one particularly innocuous motion garnered the usual handful of “no” votes, I laughed to myself and began entertaining the notion of starting a “No Vote Pool” to take bets on how many “no” votes the next mundane resolution would get.

Just wondering about that. Other than that, as an lay observer I enjoyed myself immensely, especially getting the opportunity to hear President Harrison speak. Also, it was good to see what a great bunch of pastors the district truly has, solid guys who are daily “in the trenches” serving their parishes.

I do not know how they do things in CID, but in my district, 23 of the some 26 resolutions put forth for the convention to consider was submitted by the district itself! In such a case, I can see voting ‘no’ for all such resolutions.

I pray that I not only hold allegience to the Scriptures and the Confessions, and go beyond mere lip service of the same, but this is what would define my actual teaching and practice. I thank those who would vouch for me.

>>who on earth are the 7-15 people (out of 220-ish) who voted “No”… on everything? It seemed like every single vote, no matter how trivial the topic, there were always a handful of folks who would vote in the negative.

If they used an automated voting system, about the percentage you cite will push the wrong button or at the wrong time.